What nursing homes need: Lockdown safety – and room for hugs

When Mildred Brown arrived for physical therapy at a North Carolina nursing home in February, the octogenarian who had been living independently until then could pace about 150 feet with her walker without sitting down. Now, six months after she and thousands of other nursing home residents nationwide were placed in lockdowns designed to protect them from COVID-19, Mildred appears depressed and can barely get out of bed, says her daughter Laura Brown. 

“Her spirits were great in February. Since the isolation and lockdown, she’s just deteriorated,” says Laura, who echoes a growing sentiment among experts on aging that some long-term care residents experience health decline not because of COVID-19, but lack of human contact.  

Since a family visit on Mother’s Day – allowed because it appeared for over a week that Mildred was so ill she might die – she has gone four months without a loved one’s embrace.

When Laura eagerly